Taranis X9D-Plus 18650 Battery Mod

The Taranis X9D Plus radio transmitter takes 2S LiPo or Li-Ion battery. 18650 Li-Ion cells would have been an obvious option given the excellent capacity to weight ratio. However they don’t fit the Taranis battery compartment without some modifications.

Soldering directly on 18650 cells – can be dangerous if you overheat the battery!

Initially, I was going to end this mod/tutorial with method #1. But to take care of people who don’t want to solder directly on 18650 batteries, I decided to spend some more time to create a “safer method”.

I designed a 3D printed cover for the battery compartment, which has an extrusion in the middle to accommodate for a two-cell 18650 battery holder. You can download the STL file here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3411863

Parts Used

Soldering Wires to Battery Holder

This is how to wire balance lead to the battery holder.

Installing 2S 18650 battery holder in the battery bay.

With the 3D printed battery cover.

Advantages of using 2S battery holder:

Safer – no soldering on battery

18650 cells are removable, you can share cells between Fatshark goggles, much more flexible!